J W f ID 8 fW ill
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you IV., NO. 15.
PINEHUPST, X. C, FEU. 15, 1901.
P1MCE T I IK EE CENTS
A VALENTINE.
I lore I sit neatli a Pinehurst pine
A ml I rack my wits for any line
To rhyme my pretty Valentine,
My charming Lily,
Alas! there's neither word nor sign
Will wholly please this girl of mine
she has another Valentine,
That horrid Billy!
A Window in lMneliurst.
1 was using both feet and eyes last
week in a short walk through Pinehurst,
when I was interrupted and silenced by
the thrilling music of a negro spiritual.
There are no'long-tailed adjectives fit to
describe it. It is more potent than words
to awaken the deeper emotions, which,
alas, are almost as evanescent as dreams.
I walked home musing what this singing
of the negroes meant to themselves, for
the words were incoherent and meaning
less. Did it carry the burden and the
pathos of centuries of subjugation and
wrong? Were these the source of that
doric, minor key which underlies all
their apparently happy and careless
natures? I cannot tell, and I dismiss the
question as I have to do ten others that
try to extort a solution every day when
I have time for reflection and sauntering.
It is a comfort to feel that somebody is
somewhere working out the very prob
lems that puzzle you. It is thus that I
content myself when I come up against
them; it is then 1 turn away from them
and attend to my own simpler busiress
which happens to be this rainy day look
ing out of my window. You might
imagine it an idle and unprofitable occu
pation, iind that like the study of phil
osophy it bakes no bread. I on the other
hand believe it is good for the soul to
retire to a window sometimes and look out
perchance to look within also. Hut this
latter undertaking I leave to the reader,
and piesume he attended to it yesterday
which was Sunday. I am myself rather
more interested in outward, week-day
things things of the senses. I love to
use my eyes, my ears, my nose, if you
will. Out of my window I watch the
little birds seeking their food, the wood
peckers on the trees, but most of the
others on the ground. Their table seems
Ie always spread and always bountiful.
Lucky birds, they do not have to pay ten
dollars a week to come to Pinehurst, can
me every winter and stay as long as
'hey like. They appear to have taught
""'ii when and where to migrate; where
,' xpend the summer and where the win
l,,, and long before the Vanderbilts, they
J -'d discovered Newport and Biltmore.
-iu English sparrow is already making
Ji' '- nest in the hole of a jack-oak near
,uy window beneath which I help to
luvP her table supplied with a few
nubs. The English sparrows have no
nds, yet being birds we must have a
I 'hearted toleration for them. In
5 th most people do not know what to
'k of them. If they would learn to
: and cease their Morman propensities
we might think better of them. A friend
of mine explains their Jack of song, as
he does the dearth of poets they eat too
much and flock too much together. It is
the solitary birds which seem not to be
forever in search of food that are the
sweetest singers. A bluebird flits by on
a low but even course. I am pretty sure
it is a bluebird as he has. a piece of
heaven's own blue on his back and
Wings. His flight is never much higher
than a fence rail or a bush by which sign
he is known, and there is no mistaking
his soft, plaintive note. If he has come
it is spring; for he knows its omens bet
ter tliau any other bird being himself an
mieni
I can hardly look out of my window
without seeing the larks which when I
first came to Pinehurst I mistook for the
quail and expected every moment to see
who are moving about. The rain falls
straight down and makes no impression
i upon the sandy soil. In half an hour
after it clears you will not know it has
been raining twenty-four hours. The
shrubbery and plants, however, will
know it and will rejoice for several days.
And those plagues of the village garden
ers, the moles, will know it also and
begin their burrowings again in search
of the rootlets made more .tender
and palatable by the rain. Have you
noticed the little ridges of earth they lift
up on their backs as they burrow their
way just below the surface of the
ground? These trifles are in the nearer
view from my window. But there is a
farther view which takes in a larger
space of park-like ground, with woods in
the distance. There are some cottages
and two hotels included in the outlook.
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THE CAROLINA.
a man with a gun. They come in flocks
but. separate widely when they alight,
each one seeking a little plot of ground
where he expects to find bis breakfast.
They are the most industrious of feeders
and always look plump and prosperous.
They may be scattered over a quarter of
an acre of ground and you may not see
half a dozen of them, but if startled,
;ilmost in an instant they will be gath
ered together and fly away in a bunch of
fifty or more. There are many juncoes
around my cottage. They are not a very
interesting bird. Perhaps this is because
I know little about him. I must ask my
pretty neighbor across the way. She
has all the birds at her fingers' end but
none in her hat. I hear she has made a
study of bird songs and knows when
they are serenading their mates and
when giving a public concert.
From my window this wet day I see
few animated objects save birds. Umbrel
las and waterproofs hide the few people
One can only speculate as to what is
going on within them. But as there are
men and women it is not difficult.
At this distance it cannot be called
gossip. At this distance one can make
pictures according to his fancy of the
doings and movements of the people
confined to-day like myself within four
walls. Some are reading; others are
writing letters to their friends, telling, as
I am trying to do, what Pinehurst is like
on a rainy day; some are strolling about
the corridors and lobbies and complain
ing of the weather. It seems to be the
general expectation that the sun shall
shine every day in Pinehurst. It would
but for the storm makers in the north
who occasionally send down to us the
edge of a cloud just to give us a quiet
day in the house and to remind us by
way of contrast how pleasant is the
Pinehurst climate. But eternal sunshine
would be the most wearisome thing in
the world. We need a chance to make it
now and then for ourselves. The sunshine
makers are the most blessed of mortals.
We know them by Infallible signs, for the
cloud of depression disappears where
they enter. I remember some of them as
I sit at my window and contemplate the
low clouds and dreary landscape, and
even the remembrance makes me cheer
ful; the clouds drift away, the blue
appears, the birds begin to sing and
spring is in the heart a month before it
is due.
Flower nnl Trees Afooiil lMnelmrst.
We have lately read a small pamphlet
of eight pages which gives a partial list
of the trees, shrubs and plants of Pino
hurst. The descriptions are so brief and
imperfect as to be of no value to the
inquirer; they are merely enumerations
and one is left to guess which is which.
What is needed is a detailed account of
all our local flora and the places where
specimens may be found. With this
should go a full list and description or
the birds which frequent this region.
These .two natural objects,' flowers ami
birds, are what the great majority of
guests here are most interested in and
would like to observe and study and thus
carry away with them some new and
useful Information to friends at home as
well as souvenirs and memories of a Pine
hurst winter.
It is now nearly time to look for the
Trailing Arbutus, called in the North the
May Flower, and this latter name indi
cates the difference in climate between
New England and North Carolina. Vet
this difference is not as great as would
appear between the two months, Feb
ruary and May. For the Northern May
Flower, or Arbutus, is generally found
much earlier than May; always in April
and sometimes under the snow in the
last of February or early in March. It
depends on the weather in the spring
months and also on the situations where
the plant grows. It is said to have got
its name from having been first found in
Plymouth, Mass., by the Pilgrims in the
month of May. We understand that the
arbutus about Pinehurst is remarkable
for a double variety. To any one bring
ing to The Outlook office the first
specimen of arbutus we offer the best
prize we have our thanks and a men
tion in our largest type. Is it not glory
enough to have your name printed in
The Outlook? Lots of people think so.
One day, in a town where he was to
lecture, Henry Ward Beecher went into
a barber shop to be shaved. The bai lor,
not knowing him, asked him whether he
was going to hear Beecher lecture. "I
guess so," was the reply. "Well," con
tinued the barber, "if you haven't got
a ticket you can't get one. They're all
sold, and you'll have to stand." "That's
just my luck," said Mr. Beecher. "I
always did have to stand when I've heard
that man talk." Ladies' Home Journal.